00:00In Lagos, the cost of living is on a steady rise, from rent to transportation to basic
00:07food items.
00:09Many residents are feeling the squeeze and they are asking, how much longer can the average
00:14Nigerian afford to live here?
00:17With more people questioning whether Lagos is still livable for the everyday worker,
00:21Guardian took to the streets to find out, is Lagos becoming unaffordable for the average
00:26Nigerian or not?
00:28Things are high, like the house renting, the transportation, a whole lot of things are
00:35just high in Lagos.
00:36We are pushing it, everything is hard.
00:40I don't know how the government will help us.
00:42In terms of housing, it is very unbearable, it's becoming unbearable for we youth to afford.
00:54And also, some things, Lagos is very expensive to live in.
01:02Too expensive in Lagos, so in one area, the cost of living.
01:08The cost of living is very expensive.
01:11To get things, to buy things to your own self is very expensive.
01:16Everything about Lagos is very expensive for the average people these days.
01:23There are many aspects that for transportation is very, very like, for instance now, the
01:29fuel is up now.
01:30So average Nigerians can't just be affordable to just enter a bus because if they do that,
01:36there won't be enough money for them to just, you know.
01:38What I would just say is that it's very, very hard for them to just live in this situation
01:43what's going on right now.
01:44An apartment in Lagos, yeah, it's very, very expensive.
01:48So if I want to get an apartment in Lagos now, it's very, very expensive because I have
01:53to just call a few of my friends to just put the money together so that we can get an
01:57apartment because only me, it's very expensive for only me to just to afford.
02:00It's very, very unaffordable because there is high in prices of things in the market and
02:08also the cost of transportation from one place to another.
02:12You can imagine an average Nigerian earning like 200k salary and maybe like almost 100
02:18is for transportation alone.
02:21Not to talk of feeding and some miscellaneous other things like that.
02:25So the person will have to like look for other things to add in addition and it's quite
02:32annoying for real because that's where you have to like task yourself to do.
02:37things that are not really relevant.
02:40You know, the time of doing things.
02:43Yes, it is.
02:45Because if you go to market to purchase something, the prices of things are very high.
02:51So I understand that sometimes you might make your list and you go to market, you start
02:56amending your list again.
02:57And sometimes you might end up doing what you are not supposed to do.
03:02Sometimes you look at your salary and you can't afford anything.
03:06Like your salary cannot buy anything in the market.
03:09Then you have to look for side hustles to do so that you'll be able to meet up.
03:12The experience we have in Lagos is every three years, the landlord keep increasing their rents.
03:19And you keep paying some utility bills that are so outrageous.
03:24I don't know what government can do about this.
03:26But I think it's their policy because some law enforcement agencies like, what's it called?
03:36Like the debts, we pay to pack debts from our houses and we pay to maintain so many of that.
03:43And it goes back to the government costs.
03:45Like electricity is not owned by any person.
03:47It's owned by the government.
03:48So the government regulates mostly all the things that work in Lagos City.
03:53We've just heard what the Goshings have to say about the rising cost of living in the city.
03:58While some believe the city is quickly prizing out the average person.
04:02Others think it all comes down to financial priorities and lifestyle choices.
04:07What's your take on this?
04:09Join the conversation in the comment section below.
04:11Join the conversation in the comments below.
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